Rise of diesel fast and furious

Official figures show the use of diesel-fuelled cars by households has jumped almost 50 per cent in the past three years.

An Australian Bureau of Statistics study of motor vehicle usage has found 13 per cent of households are now driving diesel-powered vehicles, up from 9 per cent just three years earlier.

"For the first time the number of Australian households that opted to use diesel to power their main motor vehicle has hit the one million mark," said Andrew Cadogan-Cowper the director of the ABS Centre of Environment Statistics.

Unleaded petrol remains the most popular fuel for households, with 83 per cent using petrol-engined cars.

However, within petrol-powered vehicles, there has been a distinct shift away from basic unleaded to premium fuels, with 14 per cent of households now using premium, up from just 8 per cent in 2009.

According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum the national average price of diesel for the week ending October 21, was 152.7 cents-per-litre.

The national average for petrol over the same period was 149.4 cents-per-litre.

The ABS figures show New South Wales had the highest use of premium fuels, at 20 per cent, with the ACT the next highest at 18 per cent.

New South Wales also had the highest use of ethanol blends, at 15 per cent, compared to a national average of 6 per cent.

Despite the well publicised woes with Sydney's public transport system, New South Wales has the highest proportion of households using public transport, at 21 per cent, followed by Victoria with 17 per cent.

However, car pooling does not seem to have particularly caught on, with less than a quarter of the eight million people who drive to work or full-time study usually taking passengers.